we begin with dasha burns, who broke the news of the unusual desantis rollout >> reporter: tonight we're just 24 hours away from an expected major shakeup in the republican race for president, with florida governor ron desantis ready to jump in >> stay tuned. stay tuned >> reporter: and now nbc news learning exclusive details about that announcement, which will feature a surprise guest desantis set to reveal his presidential run in a discussion with billionaire twitter ceo elon musk wednesday night that will be live-streamed on twitter spaces, the site's platform for audio chats, according to three sources familiar with the plans. musk first tweeted his support for desantis last year. a source familiar with conversations between musk and the governor's team tells nbc news musk does not think republican front-runner former president trump can win and believes desantis is the future. >> my preference, and i think the preference of most americans, is to have someone fairly normal in office. >> reporter: tonight musk saying he won't be making any endorsements wednesday. >> i'm not at this ti

>> all right, dasha burns, good to have you here tonight. thank you. >>> also this evening, that scare at the white house after a large rental truck rammed into nearby security barriers. tonight what we know about the teenaged driver and the seriousness of the threat officials believe he posed. here is peter alexander. >> reporter: the dramatic crash caught on camera just a block from the white house. the driver ramming this u-haul truck into security barricades at 9:35 last night before backing up and doing it again. >> i heard this loud bang. and it was -- i looked behind, and there was this huge u-haul truck out of nowhere. >> reporter: chris saboi was jogging when it all unfolded. >> i thought maybe it was a drunk driver, an accident. they backed up and rammed it again. >> reporter: the suspect, 19-year-old sai varshith kandula is in custody. sources say kandula flew into the airport last night, rented the truck and drove directly to the white house. he told agents his goal was to get to the white house, seize power and would, quote, kil

dasha burns joins me now. dasha, this will happen within days >> lester, that's right. after months of flirting with a run for the white house, nbc news first to report florida governor ron desantis plans to formally announce he is running for president next week, according to my conversations with two sources close to his political operation. desantis will become the top challenger to gop front-runner former president trump. and he'll face questions over that growing feud with disney, who today announced they're scrapping plans for a new $1 billion florida campus disney currently suing florida for taking away its special self-governing status after the company opposed florida's parental rights in education law that critics call the don't say gay bill. >> all right, dasha. great to have you here thank you. >>> just breaking overseas tonight, a man driving his car past the main gate at the vatican, getting past guards and into the courtyard even after security shot at the vehicle's tires. officials say the suspect was immediately arrested they say he appeared to be suffe

joining me from miami is dasha burns, and in iowa, shaquille brewster. nned, but what is ron desantis doing next? >> well, we talked yesterday about how this was kind of a high-risk high-reward situation. we saw that play out last night both for ron desantis and elon musk. now they did the unconventional thing to launch the campaign. now they have to do the conventional thing to actually get the thing going. they have to do the real work on the ground. today, desantis right now is meeting with folks actually just across the waterway at the four seasons. donors and fund-raisers will be trying to get the dollars wracked up for him here today. then early next week, starting tuesday, he's going to be hitting the campaign trail. he's been traveling across the country for the last few months. he's been doing it sort of on his book tour touting the florida blueprint as he calls it. now he's going to be doing it officially as a candidate. he hits iowa, new hampshire and south carolina next week. that's going to be the next big test. glitchy rollout, glitchy launc

dasha burns is in lexington for us. it will be the trump backed daniel cameron, facing off against the democratic governor, andy beshear. >> that's exactly right. not just for kentucky. this is a race we have been watching nationally. it is an early bellwether for republicans about what wins out with voters, and how important is trump's endorsement. if you look at those numbers from last night, the landslide win that daniel cameron had, it would point to a pretty strong sign that the power of trump's endorsement remains significant here. now, in the last moments of the race on monday night, governor ron desantis endorsed one of his opponents, kelly kraft, who had been campaigning sort of in the style of trump but also in a bit of the style of desantis as she has been leaning into culture war issues into woke ideologies that she was sort of campaigning against. and last night in his victory speech, daniel cameron had this to say. take a listen. >> of course a big thank you to president donald j. trump for his support and

with us now to take closer look at this, nbc's dasha burns in miami and nbc's shaquille brewster in davenporta, what can we expect from today's donor meeting? >> reporter: well, look, jose, he did the big thing, the unconventional thing last night. there's a wide mix of reaction to how that went. it's a bit of a rorschach test. if you're a fan of desantis, he broke the internet with the amount of enthusiasm voters have for him. if you're not a fan of desantis or in trump world, you might be having a field day of making memes and making fun of the glitches that happened last night. one of the senior members of team trump when i asked for a reaction simply responded to me with a picture of a glass of wine over at a bar in palm beach. so team trump thinks this was a disaster. team desantis says they broke the internet, but at the end of the day now he is in the race. he is officially in the race. he is a candidate. he's going to have to do the things a candidate does like meet with donors. he's doing that at the four seasons later today where he will be making the case, having to raise fund so t

i want to bring in nbc news correspondent dasha burns and former republican congressman from florida, does desantis think he can beat trump sf. >> well, look, he's going to be laying out the case as he did yesterday to donors here in miami that he is the best alternative to the former president and that voters are, in fact, looking for that. one big piece of evidence that they are going to be touting for that point is massive number that the campaign just put out. they're saying that they raised $8.2 million in the 24 hours since desantis launched his campaign. now, that is significant. that is higher than when president biden announced in that same period in 2019 kicking off his 2020 campaign and higher than the number that trump brought, and it took him some six weeks to get to about $9.5 million per "the new york times" so they're going to be using that number to show that, look, people are, in fact, interested and ready to invest in somebody other than donald trump. and desantis is now starting to sort of sharpen his attack on the former president a little bit more than we've seen

joining us now with more is dasha burns here in miami and nbc news national politics reporter henry gomez fund-raising in the first 24 hours. >> yeah, that's right. $8.2 million in 24 hours. that's a significant figure. it beats what biden raised during that same period in 2019 when he announced his bid for the 2020 election. it took former president trump about six weeks to reach around $9.2 million, according to "the new york times." that's an important number and it is one we're probably going to hear a lot from the campaign as they try to make their case and use that as evidence to say, look, there are voters out there who are interested in and looking for an alternative to former president trump. and that best alternative is ron desantis. they're going to be hammering that message, they're going to be hammering the fact that the former president is bombarded by legal trouble, that is going to weigh him down, that's going to cause a lot of baggage for the former president and emphasizing that ron desantis does not have that. you're going to likely hear a lot of that from his super pac

joining us now from miami is nbc news correspondent dasha burns. so with us is former democratic representative val demings of florida, and michael steele who is also an msnbc political analyst. so dasha, what's the reaction from within desantis world about the glitchy rollout here, and what is he doing moving forward? >> look, it's a little bit of a roe shack test, if you are a desantis fan, this was an announcement, a launch that broke the internet that shows the enthusiasm behind this candidate. if you don't like desantis, if you are, you know, a trump fan especially, trump world is having a field day with this today. one of the spokespeople, steven chung giving us a statement saying glitchy, tech issues, uncomfortable, silences a complete failure to launch, and that's just the candidate. another senior official within team trump when i asked for a response simply sending me back a picture of a glass of wine at a bar in palm beach, florida, so a lot of reaction swirling, but look, this is one moment, this is a big moment, right, the launch. now h

nbc's dasha burns is following the desantis campaign in iowa and matthew dowd is back with us. ntis campaign feel it needs a reset after that widely mocked twitter rollout? they're not going to make an announcement saying we really made a mess of things. but what are you hearing on the inside and what can we expect tonight? >> well, look, they know that now the game really begins, right? for the last few months, chris, as he's been in iowa now, this is his third trip here, but his first trip as an actual presidential candidate, for the last few months, when they have been asked about the lagging poll numbers and other controversies, their line has been, look, he's not a candidate. well, now he is. and so this is a whole new ball game now. the pressure is really on to demonstrate that he can really do this, that he can be the formidable alternative to former president trump and can win over those voters who are maybe skeptical of the former president and looking to find somebody else and that desantis is that somebody else for them. here are the things that i'm going to be watchi

dasha burns joins us now with her exclusive interview with the vice president. what did mike pence have to say, dasha? >> reporter: well, chris, to your point, not only is donald trump mike pence's former running mate, he's also his former boss and also potentially his future political rival. in that interview he told us that he will be making his decision public about whether or not he's going to run for president by the end of june. but, chris, this is the problem that anyone who is in this presidential race or is going to get into this presidential race is going to have to contend with. donald trump and his controversies, his scandals, taking up all of the oxygen, and the question as this news came out just a couple of hours before i sat down with the vice president, the former vice president, was what's he going to do here? is he going to take the opportunity to criticize the former president or at least distance himself to denounce sexual abuse, or is he going to stand by his former boss or punt or dodge? i asked him if this verdict changes his view about wh

>> dasha burns and catherine christian, thank you both so very much.adline to act on the nation's debt limit just over three weeks away, both sides are far apart after what has been described as a tense white house meeting between president biden and the top four congressional leaders. the group is set to meet again on friday with staff members holding talks in between. this comes as the president is set to visit new york today it talk about what happens if congress fails to lift the debt ceiling. it is also his first road trip since announcing last month he's running for re-election. with us now nbc news white house correspondent mike memoli and nbc news senior capitol hill correspondent garrett haake. anything positive coming out of yesterday's meeting? >> reporter: best i can give you that sound remotely positive is the fact they agreed to meet again. several sources described it as not especially productive, that it was tense and that everyone mostly focused on their own talking points. but i think the thing to watch here is the fact that even betw

i want to bring in nbc's dasha burns in miami, she's been writing about the desantis strategy, nbc's here along with former florida republican congressman and msnbc political analyst david jolly. skeptic might look at this plan and say what does it say about desantis if his campaign is relying on the idea that trump will be damaged by his legal problems and the other candidates will crash and burn? >> sure. chris, it speaks first to the strength of donald trump, something we did not know since months ago when he rolled out his campaign, largely to a flop. but when he really turned on his a game, we saw donald trump take command of the party, move his numbers above 50th%, and so i think this the strategy of ron desantis is actually the same strategy for tim scott, nikki haley and everyone else. you are hoping that donald trump somehow wounds himself, that an indictment or an additional charge somehow shatters that invincibility, but we haven't seen it yet -- >> but david, for a campaign -- for a campaign to essentially say on his own our candidate is not strong enough to do this, so t

john allen, dasha burns, thank you, guys, very much. it's going to get interesting.at. >>> coming up next, an nbc news exclusive, how african gold and blood diamonds are funding the war in ukraine, and how russia's wagner group has to do with. russ wagner group has to do with. d more sustainable ways of doing things. america's plastic makers are investing billions of dollars in new technologies and creating plastic products that are more recyclable. durable. and dependable. our goal is a cleaner, healthier planet for generations to come. for a better tomorrow, we're focused on making plastics better today. type 2 diabetes? for a better tomorrow, discover the power of 3 in the ozempic® tri-zone. ♪ (oh, oh, oh, ozempic®!) ♪ in my ozempic® tri-zone, i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. ozempic® provides powerful a1c reduction. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death in adults also with known heart disease. and you may lose weigh

. >> that was an exchange with our own dasha burns. let's bring in kevin madden, former senior adviser for mitt romney's 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns and max rose, former democratic congressman from new york. kevin, let's start with this breaking 2024 news. can chris christie change the dynamics of this race? well, that remains to be seen. i think one of the challenges that chris christie is going to have is what's his theory of where his constituency is inside the republican party. if you remember he ran in 2016 and finished sixth in new hampshire after really sort of staking his entire candidacy on that state. so he didn't find a constituency in new hampshire, i'm not sure he's going to find one in iowa. where does chris christie win? one of the other problems and challenges he's going to face is folks from the trump wing of the party are going to be very critical and skeptical of him given that he's now decided to become a top critic of former president trump, and then i think many of those in the sort of never trump wing of

him we shall see, dasha burns, thank you. as we, said desantis is not alone an, iowa former president trump is holding a rally in des moines tonight. let's go to ivan hillyard, he's in des moines, iowa for. as of, on what kind of reception should donald trump expect in iowa? is there any sign at all of trump trauma fatigue? >> well, let's first say right off the bat here, i don't think it's a surprise to anybody that donald trump is not much of a picnic guy. and that is why he, by contrast to rhonda santas, is holding one of his mega rallies here in the heart of des moines. 8 pm eastern start. time a lot couple of folks are gathered. here we should know that donald trump announced this event after ron desantis made it clear that he was gonna come to iowa to spend the weekend. so this is him going against ron desantis as he wonders whether to jump into it as or not. utah asked about donald trump, fatigue i see no evidence of. that nbc national, polling 34% of americans view him positively. when you're looking at republican pri

i want to bring in nbc's dasha burns who broke the news about desantis's announcement, robert gibbs served as white house press secretary under president obama. he's an msnbc political analyst. and host of the big technology podcast. good to have all of you here. what more can you tell us about what we should expect from this announcement tonight? >> reporter: well, chris, look, i think we should probably expect the unexpected. elon musk is a man that is fairly unpredictable. and this is, like you said a departure from a traditional type announcement. that is sort of the point. this is a soon to be candidate who has looked for ways to bypass traditional media and go directly to the voters. this is one way to do it, using elon musk's 140 million twitter followers. it is unconventional and it is high risk and high reward for this emerging campaign, and there are two things that according to the sources i've been talking to they are trying to get out of this here. number one is what i just talked about with that massive reach, and number two is the message that they are hoping to send with th

vaughn, michael steele, dasha burns, thank you. tim miller you're coming back for more abuse later in the hour. >>> at this hour, some inside information, kristen welker just learned from one of the president's top advisers about those critical debt talks in d.c. as biden himself meets with the japanese prime minister in hiroshima. we'll take you live to japan just 60 seconds away. you live n just 60 seconds away hydrates better than the expensive stuff i don't live here, so i'm taking this and whatever's in the back. it's already sold in the us. but i'm not taking any chances. the uk's #1 skincare has crossed the pond. (woman) with verizon's new myplan, i get exactly what i want. the uk's #1 skincare and only pay for what i need. (man) now i'm in charge... ...of my plan. (vo) introducing myplan from verizon. you get exactly what you want and only pay for what you need. and it all starts at just $30. it's your verizon. >>> president biden landed early today at the g-7 summit in japan, juggling the challenge of balancing urgent debt

listen to the reaction from some inside the party that dasha burns and our hill team received in the last hours since the verdict came down yesterday. >> i would tell you in my 4 1/2 years serving alongside the president, i never heard or witnessed behavior of that nature. >> he just is not suited to be president of the united states and to be the person we hold up to our children and the world as a leader of the free world. >> do americans believe the allegations are true? probably most of them do, just like the jury did. some will excuse it. i don't believe it's excusable and defensible. >> let me add one thing to this. this happened on fox news radio today. this is chris christie. he said, his response was ridiculous. he didn't know the woman. that's what he just posted overnight. how many coincidences are we going to have. he must be the unlickiest sob in the world. he has ron dom people who are able to convince a jury. it's one person after another, one woman after another. the stories continue to pile up. i think we all know he is not unlucky and he has engaged in this conduct.

nbc's dasha burns and vaughn hillyard are following all of it for us from iowa. esantis campaign plan now to confront donald trump? >> reporter: well, chris, i'm using my inside voice right now because the governor is currently speaking to voters behind me right now. just yesterday i was on air before his kickoff event in iowa, and i was saying that one of the things we were going to be watching for was just how directly he would take on trump in some of his events here, and look, in his speech last night, his main headline event, he only very subtly took jabs at the former president. but when it came to his press event, he went at him much more directly. this was some of the more animated, more direct attacks at the former president that we've seen so far, especially in response to one of the questions that i asked him about the former president now wading into the disney battle, now calling disney woke and criticizing desantis for not standing up to the company sooner. take a listen to desantis's response when i asked him his take on that pivot from trump and wh

that was dasha burns from iowa.dark clouds hanging over trump's campaign, his legal woes. >> joining us is jill wine-banks. she is currently on the road and is the author of the watergate girl. also joining us is msnbc legal analyst lisa rubin. trump told the town hall audience he had, quote, every right to take classified documents to mar-a-lago. what do you think special counsel jack smith made of those remarks? >> i think he thought he had some really good evidence of clear intent on the part of donald trump. donald trump had no right to take those documents. they are products that belong to the government, to the american people. he can't classify them or declassify them in his mind. there is a process for doing that he cannot share them because they were classified but even the unclassified once belonged to the people so he was just simply wrong in saying that and it is misleading you can keep misleading the american people but you cannot lie informal papers to the government or in any other way. so hopefully t

dasha burns has the exclusive report >> reporter: we're hours away from an expected major shakeup in the race for president with florida governor ron desantis ready to jump in >> stay tuned, stay tuned. >> reporter: and now nbc news learning exclusive details about that announcement, which will feature a surprise guest desantis set to reveal his presidential run in a discussion with billionaire twitter ceo elon musk wednesday night that will be live streamed on twitter spaces, the site's platform for audio chats, according to three sources familiar with the plans. musk first tweeted his support for desantis last year, and a source familiar with conversations between musk and the governor's team tells nbc news musk does not think republican front runner former president trump can win and believes desantis is the future. >> my prifeference i think would be the preference of most americans is to have someone fairly normal in office. >> reporter: musk saying he won't be making any endorsements wednesday. >> i'm not at this time planning to endorse any particular candidate. but i am inter

dasha burns joins us from miami with the details of a pretty unconventional roll-out.to former president trump, making him a frequent target of mr. trump's attacks. so it may come as no surprise that just this morning mr. trump is now reacting on his own social media platform to the news of this upcoming announcement, taking credit for desantis' win in the florida governor's race and calling him disloyal governor desantis, though, has so far avoided attacking the former president directly. but tonight he will be launching his presidential campaign on a platform that was once mr. trump's domain three sources familiar with the planning tell nbc news desantis will make his long-suspected presidential ambitions public in a conversation with billionaire elon musk on twitter spaces. the website's platform for audio chats. it is an unconventional approach to announcing a white house bid. but we do expect a more traditional campaign roll-out will be coming with a launch video and some trips to early states planned next week, savannah. >> all right dasha burns, thank you very m

our dasha burns was the first to break the news for us. >> reporter: nbc news first to report florida governor ron desantis plans to formally announce he is running for president next week. according to two sources close to his political operation >> take care take care. >> reporter: his team is also summoning his top donors to meetings in miami in cn miami it witconjunctio with the announcement. >> we're proud of what we've done if done if florida, but i have only begun to fight >> reporter: making several campaign stops in iowa, refining his attack on his soon-to-be top rival, former president trump. >> we must reject the culture of losing that has infected our party in recent years. the time for excuses is other. >> reporter: but the former president attacking desantis head on, trying to take out his biggest rival early with a familiar battle plan >> the problem with ron desanctimonious is that he needs a personality transplant, and those are not yet available. they say oh, i think desanctimonious can do well with farmers. he's not doing well with anything >> reporter: the desantis

. >> reporter: nbc news' dasha burns reported that governor desantis will be making this announcement in the twitter spaces event, alongside the platform's ceo elon musk musk, who tweeted last year that he would support desantis if he were to run for president told the "wall street journal" on tuesday that this event does not constitute an endorsement. >> i'm not at this time planning to endorse any particular candidate. my preference, and i think would be the preference of most americans is really to have someone fairly normal in office. >> reporter: and tonight's event will be moderated by tech entrepreneur and republican donor, david sachs, who is an ally to both desantis and musk cori >> certainly an announcement of note in that sense thank you. >>> it has been three months since former president jimmy carter entered end of life hospice care he remains in good spirits his grandson tells associated press keeping up with regular tributes and enjoying regular servings of ice cream. he and his wife have been married since 1946 and the grandson tells the ap their faith is really ground

reporter: former vice president pence appearing dismissive of the case in an exclusive interslew with dasha burns. >> i don't think the american people are focused on it. >> do americans believe that the allegations are true? probably most of them do just like the jury did, some will excuse it. i don't believe it's excusable and defensible. >> reporter: chris christie said to be still mulling a white house bid going even further. >> his response yesterday to me was ridiculous that he didn't even know the woman. why do we keep making excuses and why do we listen to his own words. ? and laura joining me. we heard information about one of the jurors in the case. >> yes, lester, carroll's legal team tried to get someone kicked off that jury after learning he listened to a far right podcast. this all coming out tonight in unsealed court filings, but it turns out the judge kept him on the case, and as we know, the verdict was unanimous against mr. trump. >> all right, laura, thank you for that. >>> just one day before the end of a border restriction known as title 42, a top official tells nbc news as m

and then when dasha burns of nbc news ha conversation with him she said he could not actually comprehendot have anything in terms of what you would expect a senator to have as far as a discussion, as far as cognitive ability. and she was eviscerated by other members of the media for simply reporting what she had observed and then a couple days later, he does that debate against dr. oz and it was apparent to the whole country who watched that that he has no business being in the senate. but, because there are so many early votes that came about well, that was the end of that. he ends up winning that senate seat in pennsylvania. and then what happens after he is inaugurated, after he is put into office? he is not at the hospital not once but twice. once for lightheadedness and then another time for clinical depression where he spent weeks at walter reed. john fetterman has no business being in the u.s. senate. he should resign and actually have somebody come in who could do the job. but, his -- from everybody from his family to his own party in the democratic party will keep him there beca

of the past, and that's the message that the campaign hopes to get out tonight, willie. >> nbc's dasha burns. dasha, thank you. >>> former president trump is attacking governor desantis on truth social calling him disloyal, in need of a personality transplant, and referring to him as rob instead of ron. and declared candidate nikki haley is out this morning with a new ad that takes on both governor desantis and former president trump. >> he was totally different, whatever i want, he wants. >> you're fired, you're fired. >> then mr. trump said, you're fired. i love that part. >> make america great again. >> make america great again. >> instead of calling the russian invasion, a territorial dispute even some republicans on the hill with tough words for desantis. >> do you want ukraine to win this war? >> i don't think in terms of winning and losing. everybody here would do it. >> treatment available. >> and honestly we have businesses that have been locked down for over a year. so john, that's an ad from nikki haley sort of going at both of them, but really the suggestion there is that ron des

dasha burns is in kentucky. what are you hearing?ll voters right now are weighing in on this race that has really become a bellwether. an early test for republicans about what wins out for voters. is it trump and his word, his endorsement or trumpism and his style? because one of the candidates here has his endorsement. cameron. the other candidate has been campaigning in the trump style and he now as you just reported, we got confirmation last night, has been endorsed by his likely top rival in 2024. governor desantis. watch. in kentucky's hotly watched governor's race, the former president looms large for both front-runners. >> daniel cameron. the only candidate endorsed by president trump. >> cameron agreed with the george tsiros back d ark. >> kelly craft hails from the trump administration as his former ambassador to the united nations. >> president trump sent me to the united nations and what a snake pit that is. >> it's cameron who has the endorsement of her former boss. >> why didn't he endorse you? >> i was not the race so t

joining me now for more on this is dasha burns. this is your reporting. tell us what you know. >> all right. so here is what you can expect just over 24 hours from now, the long awaited launch of ron desantis' presidential campaign. he'll be launching it on twitter spaces, twitter's platform for having audio conversations. it will be in a discussion with elon musk and it will be moderated by david sax, a former paypal ceo and confidant of elon musk and supporter of governor desantis. this is an unconventional way to launch a presidential campaign, but it sort of makes sense for a candidate looking at the field, looking at how trump does things. looking at how tim scott just launched his campaign. he is not the guy that's going to give a sermon style speech in front of a crowd but this is a way that he can bypass traditional media, right, and he can use the reach of elon musk's more than 140 million twitter followers. you know, the campaign according to the sources i've been talking to has been watching twitter as it has become an increasingly friendly spa

i want to bring in dasha burns who spoke to two dozen voters inside the state, dasha, lets me start withers that you were speaking with? >> reporter: there's been so much speculation in the political class, in d.c. from donors, consultants, warning that this could be something that sinks the desantis campaign before it even begins. there's a reason why he is doing this, and that's to court some of these republican primary voters that are going to be so critical if he wants to take on donald trump. we went and spoke to the lot of them. we spent a lot of time in lake county, florida, which is actually right next door to disney. look, this is a conservative county. it also encompasses the villages, which is the world's largest retirement community that is also famously quite red. it went for donald trump. but this is a community that has also benefitted a lot from disney economically, and the voters that we talked to acknowledged this. but overwhelmingly, we found that they sided with desantis in this fight. they were frustrated with disney, wading into political waters. take a listen to so

dasha burns is following the campaign for us and joins us from miami. dasha, what is governor desantis' next move now that his launch is behind him? i saw there was tension within his campaign, right? >> reporter: well, zinhle, that $8.2 million you mentioned there, that is going to be a big factor. they will be underscoring that as they try to make the case that there is interest and enthusiasm for an alternative to former president trump and that the best alternative is ron desantis. they are going to be underscoring that that number is evidence for that case. they're also making the case to donors here in miami that those legal woes that trump is dealing with will drag him down while desantis is able to make the case to voters that he has executed here in florida and that he can do that nationally. he will particularly emphasize what he has done on covid here in florida and you've already seen him start to do that a little bit just today. take a listen to what he said here in orlando. >> you had health bureaucrats say you shouldn't have kids in school

joining us is dasha burns from miami, former republican congressman from florida, and atimo omara democratic strategist. dasha, let me start with you on this one, and take us through the abcs of what we know so far, what we can expect as this thing is launched on twitter of all places. >> reporter: maybe expect the unexpected. we all know that elon musk is an unpredictable character. this will be live on twitter spaces. it's the website's audio platform. this is an unconventional way to announce a white house bid. that's sort of the point, right? this is a soon to be candidate that likes to bypass traditional media. this is a way to do that and a way to use elon musk's massive reach. this is a guy that has 140 million twitter followers, many who will be tuning in tonight to see what is happening here. not only is it the sort of tactical piece of getting a large number of viewers here, but there's also the message that the campaign is trying to send here according to the sources that i've been speaking with, which is they're trying to set up that contrast with the former president without act

dasha burns will be live from kentucky with the latest on that republican race for governor and the coming democratic governor andy beshear. >>> elon musk on the record, the tech billionaire defending giving credence to conspiracy theories just as we're heading into the 2024 race. >>> plus, litigating the losses, kari lake won't give up trying to overturn her loss in the race for governor of arizona. we'll be right back. be right ba. so, you found the no7 then... it's amazing! hydrates better than the expensive stuff i don't live here, so i'm taking this and whatever's in the back. it's already sold in the us. but i'm not taking any chances. the uk's #1 skincare has crossed the pond. how can you sleep on such a firm setting? gab, mine is almost the same as yours. the uk's #1 skincare almost... just another word for not as good as mine. save 50% on the sleep number limited edition smart bed. (torstein vo)al financing. when you really philosophize about it, there's only one thing you don't have enough of. time is the only truly scarce commodity. when you come to that realization, i think it'

remember dasha burns who said i spoke with john fedder man and he couldn't follow the senator and couldn'ton and the mob came for her saying how dare you question his mental uh cutie. and then he does a debate and they say oh she was right. when she went against the grain i bet when the next job comes up and maybe it is a white house correspondent job or high neither the food chain at nbc, perhaps she won't get that because she tried to do her job. so there is a fear. remember where media is, new york and washington. how do they vote in those two cities as far as presidential elections? the ecosystem says don't go against what the narrative should be or you will be looking for another job or sitting at the job you are currently in. >> and even when they try to cross over like cnn, in the break you told me some numbers about cnn had really big numbers for donald trump. >> 3.1 million viewers. >> what happened after that? >> the numbers came out the following night. you say is there a carry over? they went from 3.1 million tuning in for trump to about 535,000 tuning in in the same exact time

his team, one source telling my colleague dasha burns, they had been in touch with elon musk's team for weeks trying to plan this out, for his part former president trump this morning is blasting governor desantis, saying -- bringing up the story that he tells and bringing up that in 2018, desantis begged him for an endorsement. now he is referring to him as disloyal. this morning i was speaking with the trump advisor who said this twitter announcement was out of touch and didn't seem to put governor desantis in the right place to be interacting with regular people. that's this highly unusual nature of this. a presidential announcement at 6:00 p.m. tonight on twitter space, audio only. unusual, but desantis' team hopes it will pay off. >> tim miller, the former president, donald trump, who is dominating the field, is picking him apart today. you were back there with jeb bush when donald trump went after him in the early primaries to good affect to him. what can desantis do differently than jeb bush to avoid the same outcome? >> desantis is experienced, even though he isn't an official c

. >> i want to bring in dasha burns following the governor in miami. shaquille brewster has been talking to voters in iowa about all this. matthew is senior msnbc political analyst. so dasha, is this the way desantis makes his case to those donors today and then tries to put last night, frankly, behind him? >> well, we talked yesterday about how this was a high-risk, high-reward gamble. it is a little bit of a test. if you talk to folks who are desantis fans, they'll say he broke the internet with the amount of enthusiasm. if you talk to he due tractors or trump world, they're having a field day with this making memes and talking about how this was a failure here. behind me, at the four seasons right now, there are a lot of donors and fund-raisers gathered. he will be meeting with them later today and walking through the plan to execute beyond this launch. because here's the moment where he actually needs to now hit the ground running. he's in. he did the unconventional thing. now he needs to do the conventional thing. the thing candidates have to do, g

many thanks to my colleague dasha burns and our msnbc news colleagues for this delicious scoop. thank you for letting us into your homes during these extraordinary times. we are grateful. "the beat" with ari melber starts rights now. >> as always you put it incisively. i'm more excited for that than anything else. >> we're not going to sleep tonight, right? have a great show. >> thank you, nicolle. we are excited about the upcoming news. welcome to "the beat." i'm ari melber. but the big news today is huge, and here it is -- the criminal trial of defendant donald trump continuing today. you are looking at new images, and i'll explain exactly what it is. you may recall that first court hearing set a lot of rules down. now you're looking at the first one since then, since trump was arraigned, which was a precedent busting moment for america. it was actually just seven weeks ago. at that hearing, the judge warning him about his conduct and scheduling another hearing, which brings us what you have here today. we'll show you what we have. we don't have a million shots. isolated on th

let's go to dasha burns just outside of des moines and with us also msnbc political analyst susan delom desantis at this first in-person campaign event today? >> reporter: yeah, ana, it's funny because i think i've reported about three times now from a desantis event in iowa, but this is the first time i'm reporting on a desantis event where he's an actual presidential candidate. he'll be holding his kickoff event here tonight at the church behind me but this is changing the game now. now that he's officially in the race, the pressure is on, because for the last few months when the team is asked about the lagging poll numbers and about some of the controversies they said, look, we are not a campaign yet. we are not in the race, well now they are officially in the race and there are a few things that i'm going to be looking for, both here in iowa and the rest of the week as they're planning a 12-city swing throughout iowa, new hampshire and south carolina, of course, these critical early states, number one, is the retail politics, we have not seen desantis do too much of that yet and a

dasha burns is part of the team first to report the news. the unique announcement? why elon musk? >> reporter: an unconventional way to launch a presidential campaign but that seems to be what the desantis team is looking to do here. they are not the kind of campaign that wants to do a rally televised on traditional media. they want to bypass that and use elon musk's massive reach his more than 140 million twitter followers and go directly to the voters, which in the past was something that was former president trump's superpower that's what he used the platform for originally. now his soon-to-be top rival in the primary is using the platform to go directly to his voters, his campaign, soon-to-be official campaign has watched as under musk's leadership has been a friendly space, tucker carlson migrated his show to the platform. this seems to be a way to migrant around the campaign not only getting the massive audience but also in terms of the theme and the message the campaign wants to hit home. elon musk is someone they see as someone looki

. >> okay, dasha burns, a for effort, being able to speak to the loudness of the crowd. like maybe memorial day weekend could be coming with an announcement from rhonda santa's. we will see. thank you. happening this hour, a bit of positive news for capitol hill at the white house, and we see -- a short time ago, that staff for the president and congressional leaders are meeting today and tomorrow in hopes of resolving the debt ceiling crisis. let's go to nbc's julie, joining me now. welcome, what are you learning about this? >> this will be their fourth official meeting taking place today and tomorrow, staff for the president, and also staff are the leaders here on capitol hill, both republican and democrat, getting together to try to hammer out a deal. i'll tell you, having covered negotiations like this before, in which the sides just seems so far apart, those negotiations that take place in private between staff really tend to yield the most earnest progress, whereas a principals meeting, like we saw on tuesday with president biden, leaders jeffrey, speaker mccarthy

however, says this is unconventional and as one of my colleagues told -- one source told my colleague dasha burns that the desantis team has been in conversation with elon musk's team for at least several weeks and they do view this as a way to tap into the 140 million followers that elon musk has on twitter. and, of course, twitter increasingly in the last several months has been seen as a platform increasingly friendly to conservatives. so, while this may be audio only, very unconventional, the desantis team does feel this will reach a different audience, this more conservative audience that he is trying to make inroads with and has been for the last several months, has been trying to ahead of this contentious gop primary, of course, going up against former president trump, jose. >> and, i'm wondering, what is your take on this decision by the governor of florida to announce it via twitter with elon musk? >> well, if you announce on the one-year anniversary of one of the worst school shootings in the country, then i hope you talk about gun violence and talk about what your plan for gun violence

nbc's dasha burns has new reporting on governor desantis, brendan buck is back with us.dan, this is an opportunity and a challenge for trump's opponents. you don't want to alienate his base, but you want to tap into that voter exhaustion by presenting yourself as a viable alternative. how do you do that? >> well, the first thing is you got to decide who the alternative is. and there is going to be obviously a fight against donald trump. that poll shows that there is an openness to someone other than him. when you have ron desantis, mike pence, tim scott, nikki haley, all these other people who are getting in, that's going to have to sort itself out. as we experienced before, you divide all of these votes up, all it does is help donald trump. so, i think there is going to be a little primary within the primary. they're going to sort that out relatively quickly. you'll need to come up with a two candidate race. ron desantis is in a much weaker position than before, but still the clear alternative at this point. he needs to reset the narrative that he is a flawed candidate.

i want to bring in nbc's dasha burns outside the courthouse in madison following this for us. here? >> reporter: well, lindsey, the focus of today was on a motion to dismiss the case. the judge said she will not be ruling today. she's going to think about what both sides argue today, but the reason today was so significant is because this means that the most expensive judicial race in u.s. history might be one step closer to paying off for abortion rights proponents, and here's what i mean by that, lindsey. these arguments today come exactly one month to the day since that high profile, very big money supreme court race here in wisconsin. you might remember last month we were talking about that race where abortion rights were center stage, and this case in particular was the reason it was so high stakes because while attorneys made their arguments here at the dayton county district court, it is all but inevitable that this will ultimately end in the state supreme court. and democrats and abortion rights advocates had a big victory here last month when a liberal candidate, now

. >> dasha burns on the ground in iowa thank you. >>> on friday, governor desantis expressed support for the former marina accused in the subway chokehold death in the man of new york city. daniel penny has turned himself in and many protesting the death over last week nbc's stephanie gosk has more. >> reporter: the calls for criminal charges early friday morning, the 24-year-old walked into the manhattan precinct. >> he did so with the dignity n >> he did so with the and integrity that is characteristic of his history of service to the grateful nation >> reporter: the former marine is accused of manslaughter in the second degree. a charge carrying a maximum of 15 years penny was released on $100,000 bail homeless and battling mental illness, jordan neely died in a chokehold. neely got on the train and yelled he was hungry and ready to die according the penny's attorney, he threatened others on the train. once all of the facts are brought to bear, mr. penny will be absolved of wrongdoing. lawyers for neely family say penny is not guilty. >> we think it should be murder. he knew he wo